"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Tired but I ain't sleeping
Thinking about some sad affair
And why I should be leaving
'cause some of these thoughts only seem to take me outta here
Yeah, these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
Well these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
Thinking about tomorrow
Tired from all the time I spare
On what I still believe in
When none of my talk ever seems to get me anywhere
Yeah, these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
Well these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
So easy
So long
Bye, my friend, so long
So long
Will it ever happen again?
You know that I've been waiting for you
I've been created for you
So long
You know the light ain't fading from you
Nothing could save me from you
So long
Tired but I ain't dreaming
Falling into solid air
And why I must be leaving
Or one of these days I'm gonna pull out all my hair
Yeah, these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
Well these habits are so hard to make
And they're so easy to break
So easy
So long
Bye, my friend, so long
So long
Will it ever happen again?
You know that I've been waiting for you
I've been created for you
So long
You know the light ain't fading from you
Nothing could save me from you
So long
Thinking about some sad affair
And why I should be leaving
'cause some of these thoughts only seem to take me outta here
Yeah, these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
Well these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
Thinking about tomorrow
Tired from all the time I spare
On what I still believe in
When none of my talk ever seems to get me anywhere
Yeah, these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
Well these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
So easy
So long
Bye, my friend, so long
So long
Will it ever happen again?
You know that I've been waiting for you
I've been created for you
So long
You know the light ain't fading from you
Nothing could save me from you
So long
Tired but I ain't dreaming
Falling into solid air
And why I must be leaving
Or one of these days I'm gonna pull out all my hair
Yeah, these habits are so hard to break
And they're so easy to make
Well these habits are so hard to make
And they're so easy to break
So easy
So long
Bye, my friend, so long
So long
Will it ever happen again?
You know that I've been waiting for you
I've been created for you
So long
You know the light ain't fading from you
Nothing could save me from you
So long
Lyrics submitted by AgathaKavka
Thinking About Tomorrow Lyrics as written by Beth Orton Ted Barnes
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
This song is so brilliant it's tough to make an interpretation without being metaphorical.
With all the contradictions she has of herself (I've been waiting for you, Nothing can save me from you)the song teaches a thing or two about balance: between heart and soul, theory and method, insanity and sobriety, talking and walking.
I'm amazed how she recognizes her demons (Bye, my friends so long), but I'm dumbfounded how she manages to make a resolve on an emotional level that few of us ever achieve.
Really beautiful and powerful song. I agree, she's got a great voice. I don't even particularly like this style of singing/music, but it rips right to the core my soul whenever I hear it.
"So long, bye my friend, so long So long, will it ever happen again?"
'Can we just be friends ?'. Ever heard that before ? I think after great deliberation she realizes that they CAN'T be friends, or at least can't carry on that type of relationship. Her feelings are still too strong. So...it's time to say 'goodbye'...for the good of her 'tomorrows'.
Unless you've lived in a cave your whole life, pretty much anyone can identify with how hard it can be to let go of people, places, and even things. But somehow or other we gotta move forward. And despite the fact that the music itself has kind of a sad lilt to it, there's also a resonant strength in the harmonies when she says 'So long'. It's got the ring of hope to it.
Very moving track...
This same exact thing is happening to me, right now...I can't let go of him, or the times we shared...I can't let go of anything that happened. But he won't even SPEAK to me at the moment...and even if he was speaking to me, there's no way I could be his friend, which he has made clear is the most I can be (for now).
"Will it ever happen again?" is the question that seems to run through my mind, nonstop...
Anyway...enough with my pity party! This song is hauntingly beautiful and sad, but I also can see a bit of hope in the strong way she sings towards the end. It sometimes hurts a bit to listen to music that hits home so intensely, but maybe I can feel that hope soon as well, like she seems to.
Such a lovely, lovely song.
@Screecher All these years later...did he ever speak to you? How are you now?
@Screecher literally just created an account to ask the same thing.
Personally, I dedicate this song to Juanse ...I hope I can tell him the interpretation one fine day :(
this has to be one of my favorite songs of everything i listen to. I never took time to look at the lyrics i just love her dulcet voice and the way the song flows. I think she is trying to say how hard it is to stop being in love with someone you have loved for so long. Whoever he is, he no longer has the same feelings for her and she wants to stop being in love with him but cant stop thinking about him. The last line especially ties the whole song together with a hopeful line, "nothing could save me from you, so long" shes giving up and letting her feelings go. amazing
This song is so beautiful. I think its about struggling to put the past behind you and move forward. The last verse befor the chorus is: These habits are so hard to break and they're so easy to make, These habits are so hard to make and they're so easy to break. So easy yeah
^
no it's not.
Wake up people! This song is about drugs.
@Kvng It definitely sounds like addiction or dependency, which is a theme that can be applied in a lot of places. But yeah, this adds up to substance abuse more than a love affair. Addicts refer to their booze, drugs etc. as "friends" all the time.